Residents throughout the province increasingly complained of jammed residential phone lines. It happened so much that a payphone "Vote Craig" campaign was launched. In recent weeks Sharpe supporters drove at night looking for available payphones. Pay phones had a high success rate for registering calls, while home-based lines often got busy signals.

"Newfoundland knows how to represent their people," Sharpe said. "But you can't make it to the top two with just Newfoundland. You've got to have Canada behind you."

"Canadian Idol is not a popularity contest based on region," said Scott Henderson, a spokesman for CTV. "Craig and other finalists from Newfoundland have made it as far as they have in the competition because they receive the support of the entire country."